Decree Monthly Digest is a summary of the most significant royal decrees and laws issued in the previous month.
Five royal decrees were issued in February, including a royal decree promulgating a new law. These royal decrees can be summarised as follows:
A royal decree was issued reinstating Omani nationality and authorising those named in the royal decree to dually hold Omani nationality and another nationality. This royal decree came as a surprise to a lot of people due to the common misconception that dual nationality is not permitted in Oman, when, in fact, article 5 of the Omani Nationality Law makes it clear that this is permitted by royal decree. This is also not the first royal decree of its kind as a quick search on Decree can demonstrate, but it is certainly rare.
Royal Decree 6/2022 Promulgating the Personal Data Protection Law
The Personal Data Protection Law is the first new law to be issued in 2022 and is the first comprehensive legal framework for data protection in Oman. This law formalises the rights of data subjects, sets the duties of data controllers and processors, and introduces new criminal penalties for violating the law. Learn more about this by reading our blog post on the new Omani Personal Data Protection Law.
This decree ratified a visa exemption agreement between Oman and Colombia. This is a routine agreement that Oman signs with countries from around the world to facilitate the travel of certain classes of diplomats and government officials (i.e. holders of diplomatic, special, and service (mission) passports). Since none of these passports is usually held by ordinary Omani citizens, such agreements do not have a significant impact on the travel of Omani people at large. Read the Law of the Omani Passport to learn more about the different kinds of passports issued by the Omani government.
Royal Decree 8/2022 Transferring an Employee to the Foreign Ministry and Royal Decree 9/2022 Appointing to Some Positions
The last two royal decrees for this month appointed a new Undersecretary of the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism for Tourism, a new Secretary General of the Tender Board, and a new Chairman of Muscat Municipality. With the exception of the former Undersecretary for Tourism who was transferred to the Foreign Ministry, the previous Secretary General of the Tender Board and the previous Chairman of Muscat Municipality were retired.